Knowing The Facts About Sepsis Could Save Your Life

On March 1, 2011, Rachel Sutherland, a pregnant 36-year-old Albertan production accountant, found herself unable to breathe.

"I woke up at 7 a.m. suffocating," she recalls. "I was terrified. I was drowning."

Sutherland had sepsis after developing a lung infection from the H1N1 flu virus. Her immune system had gone into overdrive and was injuring her lung cells. Her damaged and infected lungs were rapidly filling up with fluid.

Sepsis -- or blood poisoning -- is when the body's response to an infection spirals out of control and starts attacking its own tissues and organs, experts say.

"The body makes chemicals that are meant to fight or react to infections," says Dr. Andrew W. Kirkpatrick, a sepsis researcher and surgeon at Foothills Medical Center and professor of critical care medicine at the University of Calgary in Alberta.

In sepsis, these chemicals cause collateral damage to the body's organs, he says.

Sutherland -- who was several months pregnant -- was brought via ambulance to Foothills Medical Center and admitted to the intensive care unit. The hospital staff worked tirelessly to save two lives as her organs began to fail.

"My parents had to make some serious decisions about whether to save my life or my baby," she said.

When she awoke after spending one month in the intensive care unit, she discovered that her unborn baby had also survived the ordeal.

"They told me I was having a girl," she said. "We beat the odds. We're both lucky to be alive."

"The mortality rate from severe sepsis is 30 to 40 percent," says Dr. Christopher "Chip" J. Doig, medical director of the intensive care unit at the Foothills Medical Centre, team leader of the Alberta Sepsis Network, and professor of critical care medicine at the University of Calgary.

Sepsis rates are rising dramatically, he says, adding that sepsis can strike someone in the prime of their life.

Sepsis is a medical emergency, says Dr. Graham C. Thompson, a sepsis researcher and an emergency medicine physician at the University of Calgary.